Civil Rights Laws Chapter 12, Section 3 – Citizenship Handbook

Social Studies (Grade 6)Lectures Notes for 02/10/2014 to 02/14/2014

Mr. Haywood

Objective

O(6c) Analyze political and social impacts of civil rights movements throughout the history of the United States (e.g., demonstrations, individual and group resistance, organizing efforts, and collective action/unity). (DOK 3)

Common Core State Standard

O CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

Vocabulary

OCivil Rights Movement: A mass movement in the 1950s and 1960s to gain equal rights for African Americans

OCivil Disobedience: Nonviolent refusals to obey the law as a way to advocate change

OPoll Tax: a tax levied on someone who wants to vote

Vocabulary

OAffirmative Action: A policy that requires employers and institutions to provide opportunities for members of certain historically underrepresented groups

OReverse discrimination: Discrimination against the majority group

OQuota: A fixed number or percentage

The Civil Rights Movement

O To protest discrimination and segregation, participants used acts of civil disobedience such as public demonstrations, sit-ins, and boycotts.

O One of the most important boycotts of the movement involved the Montgomery, Alabama, public buses.

O Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white person on a bus led to a boycott of the bus system and a Supreme Court ruling against the city.

OA 1963 March on Washington by African Americans and others who supported civil rights also helped lead to the passage of laws that better protected the civil rights of minorities.

New Federal Laws O The landmark Civil Rights Act of

1964 banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin – and, by 1967, age – in voting, employment, public accommodations, and government programs.

O Unlike earlier civil rights laws, this law applied to individuals and business, not just actions by the states.

OThe Twenty-fourth Amendment banned poll taxes. Poll taxes had been frequently used to keep poor African Americans from voting.

OOne year later, in 1965, the Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests, which had also been used to keep certain groups from voting.

Extending Civil Rights OVarious laws and court rulings

banned discrimination against women in many areas, including education and personal finance.

OThe Voting Rights Act of 1975 made ballots available in Spanish, and migrant farm workers, many of whom were Hispanic, also gained new rights.

O New laws allowed Native Americans groups more control over programs in their communities and confirmed their religious freedom.

O The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 required public buildings and transportation to be fully accessible and prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities.

Affirmative Action O Affirmative action was first used in

the 1960s to improve diversity in private and public workplaces.

O By the 1970s, some people began to claim that affirmative action policies were a form of reverse discrimination.

O The Supreme Court ruled that using race and diversity as factors in admissions process was constitutional but that quotas were not.